Ships importing crude oil to Philadelphia area up 19 percent in 2015
The number of ships importing crude oil to the Philadelphia area increased 19 percent in 2015, the latest evidence that refiners here shifted away from domestic petroleum sources during last year's oil-price crash.
The number of ships importing crude oil to the Philadelphia area increased 19 percent in 2015, the latest evidence that refiners here shifted away from domestic petroleum sources during last year's oil-price crash.
Authorities reported the arrival of 310 crude-oil tankers at area refineries last year, up from 260 in 2014, according to data compiled by the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay.
The trade association's vessel count is only a rough measure of crude-oil movements, since the capacity of oil tankers can vary.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, railroads in November delivered 440,000 barrels of U.S. and Canadian crude a day to East Coast refineries, down 15 percent from November 2014. A barrel is 42 gallons.
The increase in seaborne traffic and the reduction in oil trains moving crude from North Dakota's Bakken Shale field reflects the competitive improvement that imported crude has experienced in a low price environment. While domestic oil still trades at a discount to comparable light crude from the North Sea and Africa, it costs more to deliver a barrel by rail to Philadelphia than it does by ship.
PBF Energy, which owns refineries in Paulsboro and Delaware City, Del., reported a 57 percent decline last year in crude oil unloaded at its two Delaware City rail terminals, one designed for light U.S. shale-oil and the other to handle heavy Canadian crude. It received about 53,400 barrels a day last year, compared with 125,600 per day in 2014, according to the company's subsidiary, PBF Logistics L.P.
Philadelphia Energy Solutions, the joint venture between the Carlyle Group and Sunoco that operates the South Philadelphia refinery complex, has not disclosed how much more oil it now buys from overseas. But Phil Rinaldi, the refinery's chief executive, said the facility is configured to receive supplies from multiple sources.
"We designed PES to have a high degree of flexibility in the crudes we buy and the channels we use," Rinaldi said Tuesday through a spokeswoman. "There is plenty of oil in the Bakken, but some foreign barrels have price-discounted themselves to be irresistible."
Refiners in this area began receiving large quantities of crude by rail only in early 2012. Before the domestic oil boom, they imported most of their supply from overseas.
Though crude-oil imports jumped last year, exports of another fossil fuel from Philadelphia's port have increased dramatically.
The Maritime Exchange reported that the number of ships exporting propane increased from 16 in 2013 to 75 last year. Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. last year began delivering export quantities of Marcellus Shale propane to Marcus Hook through its Mariner East pipeline, which is currently undergoing expansion.
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